LANSING – While Friday's immigration protest was marked by three arrests and angry words screamed through megaphones, there were also moments of civility between the two sides.

One side wants to provide a haven for Central American children fleeing violence and poverty, while the other wants to stem illegal immigration. And then there were other participants on the fringe who simply wanted to make a quiet statement supporting or opposing U.S. policy on how to deal with the influx of migrant children.

The protest started around noon Friday at a private home near Pennsylvania and Kalamazoo avenues, where anti-illegal immigration activists were gathering to coordinate the protest.

But pro-immigration protesters showed up, and the tensions began to mount.

But it was the more vigilante protesters on both sides who erupted into name-calling and shouting matches, and they moved on to the state Capitol to carry on the anger. Michigan State Police and Lansing Police Department officers wedged themselves between the protesters to avoid any assaults.

"The Capitol is the people’s house and this is an issue that’s being very hotly debated. It certainly is their right to peaceably assemble, but we have some rules, and one of those rules is that we don’t touch each other," said Lt. Brody Boucher, MSP commander of the Capitol security section.

Amid competing chants of “What Do We Want? Amnesty!” and “No more illegals!” were instances of civility during the heated protests sparked by a Vassar, Mich. facility that has applied to host 60 Central American refugee teens.

Members of the Michigan Three Percenters and the pro-immigration rights group By Any Means
Necessary (BAMN) clashed in a pair of counter-protests that at times reached a fever pitch of angry insults, claims of racism, and even threats of violence.

But civil discourse during the tense protests took place also.

Four moments of civility

• “It’s almost like it’s just an arguing point,” Mike Mikolajczak, a member of the Michigan Three Percenters from Capac, said. “If we don’t have a good argument, then let’s just pull out the race card or the insults and the dirty words. That doesn’t get us anywhere.”

Mikolajczak, a former U.S. Marine who served from 1963 to 1967, stood out among the Capitol protesters in his United States Marine Corps fatigues and holding a large Gadsden – “Don’t Tread on Me” – flag. While he was against the housing of the immigrants, he made it clear that the angry back and forth was doing nothing to help either side’s cause.

“If we can get our cities under control; get rid of the drugs and the violence and get kids off the streets, then we can help somebody else,” Mikolajczak said. “I wish we could do this civilly and talk about it. But it’s all about the race card and everybody [that protests] is racist and I don’t believe that.”

“I've been exposed to [people of different races] my whole life,” Mikolajczak , a Detroit native, continued. “In my time in the Marines, we didn’t care about skin color. If I needed a blood transfusion, as long as it was red, that’s all that matters. I hope that hate just stops."

• During the protest, an Three Percent member was holding a Colonial Era flag with the 13 stars and a Roman numeral III. A young woman and member of BAMN calmly walked over and asked him “What kind of flag is that?”

As protesters screamed at each other in the background, the flag holder explained to her what the flag stood for. The woman, who declined to give her name, said that she was planning on joining the Marines when she graduated high school, which immediately drew a handshake from the man, who only gave his name as John. A surprisingly friendly conversation unfolded.

• “We’ll stand up for their rights to speak just as much as ours,” John Madden, president of the Michigan Three Percenters, said. He said that their issue was with the refugees being transported into the state and what he called “filtering them back into the community.”

“It’s not about a race thing,” Madden said. “They are not citizens of our country. If they want to apply for citizenship, we’ll help them. I don’t care where they come from.

“It’s just about the federal government is not upholding laws and not securing our borders,” Madden, a U.S. Army Veteran, said. “Try to sneak across into Canada and see how that works?”

• One gentleman who was a target of numerous taunts from the counter-protesters at BAMN was Ramon Garza of Lansing. An Army veteran, he was the only Latino who supported the anti-illegal immigration group and was a target of chants of “sellout” and derogatory comments about his biracial child.

But when confronted by a younger African-American member of BAMN while holding a large Gadsden Flag, Garza explained his reasoning.

“Do you pay taxes to support those 50 or 60,000 [illegal immigrants] who come into the country?”

After the young man answersed “No,” he said he had “a damn hard time” paying for his own children.

When Garza asked the young man if he’d be willing to take in a refugee child, he responded “If I could, I would.”

Garza responded: “To say that if you could, you would, I applaud and appreciate that” then extended his hand out of respect. After a momentary pause, a BAMN member said,
“Show him you’re a man” and he shook Garza's hand. While they did not agree on a position, the situation was quickly diffused.

“I applaud that you would do that,” Garza said. “But until you can do that, don’t put it on the rest of us who pay taxes daily.”